MEGAN ANDERSON
Anderson looked solid on her feet but
her weaknesses in her ground game were
exposed and exploited — succumbing to
a second-round triangle choke.
“That fight was the tougher to
deal with than any other fight,” says
Anderson. “I took a lot from that fight
on what I needed to work on inside
and outside of the cage, as well as what
level of training and training partners I
needed to be getting.”
A burning desire pushed Anderson
to relocate to the other side of the
world, and she would need that fire to
keep her warm during the brutal Kansas
City winter — a far cry from the sunny
Gold Coast.
“The cold is definitely something
I’m still struggling to get used to,” says
Anderson. “There hasn’t been too much
snow but it’s definitely been extremely
cold, getting down to at least negative
17 degrees Celsius at one point!
“But aside from that it’s very similar
to Australia, just a lot bigger. They drive
on the wrong side of the road, which
was weird to get used to — as well as the
opposite side of the car. Everything from
cars, to meals, to roads, to grocery stores
is just so much bigger here.”
It’s no surprise that American’s like
to do everything bigger, but it’s around
the holidays that Anderson really
started to understand just how fanatical
they can get — getting a taste of a real
Halloween and experiencing her first
ever Thanksgiving.
“Well Thanksgiving is really just an
excuse to eat lots of food with your
family, but it’s delicious food, that’s
for sure,” says Anderson. “Halloween
is legit crazy. People actually really
get into it and dress their houses and
front lawns up — it’s insane. I didn’t
really realise how much Americans get
into their holidays until you actually
experience it firsthand.”
For her part Anderson has tried to
impart as much Aussie culture onto her
new America friends as she can, and while
Tim Tams have gone over a treat, other
Aussie staples haven’t faired so well.
“I’ve given them Vegemite and it
was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen,”
laughs Anderson. “I had at least two of
them gagging into a bin. I also had my
parents send over some Tim Tams and
I gave some of them a try and they
loved them.
“I’ve educated them a little bit on
Australian holidays and culture. It’s
extremely amusing watching them try
to understand not only the accent, but
also our terminology and abbreviation
of words.
“I generally just get questions about
Australian wildlife and how dangerous
it is, or I get non-stop questions about
kangaroos and if they wander around all
over the place.”
Anderson has no shortage of
victims to torture with Vegemite,
or fascinate with tales of the deadly
Australian wildlife, as she lives ina house full of fighters — a living
situation that can get stressful for
some around fight time.
“It’s not too bad, but they do drive
me crazy,” says Anderson. “I’m used to
living with a lot of people from my time
in the army, so it doesn’t really bother
me too much that I live with five to six
other people in the house.
“Fighters, on the other hand, can be
emotional at times, particularly when
dieting down for a fight or in fight week,SCAN PAGE
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HOLLY HOLM’S
BRUTAL HEAD
KICK AGAINST
ALLANNA
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